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Local school districts face teacher shortages

Aug. 29, 2018

Recruiting substitutes, full-time candidates a challenge across DeKalb County

DeKALB – Gail High, music teacher at Jefferson Elementary School, beamed as she walked around her third-grade class, each and every student clapping and trying to catch on to the slippery concept of music.

She gauged the crowd, asking for those who excelled in the exercise to put thumbs-up, then asking the rest to show a sideways thumb or a thumbs-down.

“Who just did … ugh?” she asked, and a few students were forthcoming enough to admit they’d butchered “Miss Mary Mack.”

• • •

[Mark Busch – mbusch@shawmedia.com]

(Caption: Music teacher Gail High works with third-graders Yazeed Aleneze (left) and Yasin Assaf on Tuesday during class at Jefferson Elementary School in DeKalb.)

Honesty is prevalent among elementary school children. Teaching them, molding their minds, is the job many aspiring educators want, DeKalb School District 428 Superintendent Jamie Craven said, and who can blame them? But private sector competition has created a vacuum in science departments, a null set in mathematics and empty seats in counseling offices, and the trends of the times haven’t translated well for foreign languages, either.

“Although teaching is a great profession, for whatever reason, we’ve lost kids wanting to go into the profession,” Craven said, “especially when it comes to math, science, technology, foreign languages, as well as specialized professions like psychologists and paraprofessionals.”

[Mark Busch - mbusch@shawmedia.com]

The facts, the legislation

A survey done in 2017 by the Illinois Association of Superintendents of Schools revealed about 80 percent of the state’s districts were experiencing a teacher shortage.

Craven said that the shortage has truly hit home in DeKalb, where multiple teachers are retiring after the 2019-20 school year.

“We have our work cut out for us,” Craven said. “The numbers just aren’t there, and that’s just who’s retiring. People leave districts all the time for various reasons.”

The good news: Senate Bill 863, which became law this year, makes it easier for teachers with out-of-state credentials to be licensed in Illinois, waiving some testing and other requirements not demanded in other Midwestern states.

“It’s a complete about-face,” said Amanda Christensen, superintendent of the DeKalb County Regional Office of Superintendents.

Christensen said the change in legislation is great, but there’s that whole Illinois-being-financially-broken thing to deal with.

“We need to convince people to come to Illinois in the first place,” Christensen said. “This doesn’t fix the recruitment issue. It’s a multi-faceted issue.”

[Mark Busch - mbusch@shawmedia.com]

There’s also a shortage of substitute teachers in Illinois, which, should be alleviated by House Bill 5627. That law allows people with an associate's degree to get a short-term substitute teaching license. Brent O’Daniell, superintendent of Genoa-Kingston District 424, said the license, which allows subs to teach for five consecutive days, is a godsend. His district had a number of prospects who didn’t meet the previous requirements.

“Not just teacher recruitment, but substitute teacher recruitment has become a bigger and bigger part of public school education,” O’Daniell said.

He recalled having as many as 100 applicants for jobs in years past. A posting for a business teacher this past summer turned up three candidates.

“These days, it’s not a matter of them finding us, it’s a matter of us finding them,” he said. “We are on the path to recovery, but we’re an awful long ways down that road, and it’s going to take a while to get back to where we were before.”

More legislation signed earlier this month by Gov. Bruce Rauner, however, should help matters, as well.

Senate Bill 2658 changes the lifespan of teaching licenses with stipulations for military spouses from two years to three. House Bill 4742 allows school districts to contract a third party for substitute teacher searches. House Bill 5196 will reduce the licensure fee for teacher’s aides from $50 to $25.

Rauner did, however, veto a bill Sunday that would have raised the minimum salary for teachers from $9,000 to $40,000 in the next five years. While that might help school districts’ bottom lines, it won’t help lure talent from other states.

The state’s cracked financial picture was already tough to overcome before Rauner shot down the bill.

“Everybody knows Illinois is struggling financially, so that’s creating a draw to look to Wisconsin or Iowa,” Craven said.

“It’s a balancing act, with regard to where salaries are and attracting candidates,” she said. “We want our teachers to be compensated in a way that will attract them to come to our district, and then stay with us.”

She said it’s first in the middle school and high school level, specifically in the areas of math and science, that roles become difficult to fill.

The Sycamore district hasn’t struggled so much with the demand for teachers, Countryman said, adding that the district has an 89 percent teacher retention rate.
Subs, though?

“That’s a different story, and it’s been difficult to make sure we have a larger pool of candidates,” she said.

[Christopher Heimerman – cheimerman@shawmedia.com]

The view from DeKalb

Melanie Bickley, second-year principal at Jefferson Elementary School, used to work with Northern Illinois University’s College of Liberal Arts and help coordinate professional development of upcoming teachers.

She said similar to O’Daniell’s experience, she’d gotten “hundreds and hundreds” of applicants for jobs.

“Now, it might be 30,” she said. “The candidate pool was so huge, I think a lot of people saw that pool and they got discouraged.”

That said, she admitted teachers are ripe for the plucking when it comes to the private sector.

“Teachers have a really good skill set, which I think private companies like to pull from.”

Sarah Abate (above) became District 428’s human resources director in July 2017, a month after Craven took the helm as superintendent. This past spring, the district held its first internal job fair, and it’s gone from posting exclusively on its site to using several other outlets, including jobs sites.

“In the DeKalb district, the past mindset has been, ‘They’ll come to us,’ “ Abate said. “We need to prepare. How can we use our resources and get ready?”

Another job fair is being planned for early fall, Abate said.

While more lucrative opportunities might loom for talent, she and other administrators know something about what it takes to be a teacher.

“People who come into the profession have to have a passion for kids,” Countryman said.